Video games now an esport

The New E-sport

a column by

Harley L. Sachs

A recent episode of South Park satirized kids addicted to computer games. The little gang of squeaky animated figures were playing an addictive computer war game, sort of a third generation of Dungeons and Dragons, but with digital animated swords, spells, magic, etc. They were so addicted that they hardly slept or ate. But the kids’ avatars, their chosen action figures, were being wiped out by a mysterious super player somewhere out there in cyber space. Their opponent was so good, that he threatened to put the game makers out of business by discouraging all other players from buying their extra weapons, etc. This was meant to be a satire, but  video games, now called e-sport are a huge business that financially overshadows the music business and is almost equal to the movie industry in billions..

Computer games have become a bone fide e-sport. With tournaments played all over the world (recently in Poland) the State Department now issues sports visas for contestants to enter the country. Now teams playing on line computer games like Dota 2 (check out the free download) and League of Legends take part in tournaments for prize money in the millions. At a recent championship tournament before a crowd of 17000 people in Seattle, the  Newbees,  a Chinese team, won first place and over five million in prize money playing Dota 2.  The League of Legends finals drew 18,000 fans at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The tournaments are played by teams of five in sound proof booths while the game is shown on a huge screen everyone can watch.

Visit the Dota 2 web site for a glimpse into this strange world of e-sport. .

Imagine, a sport anyone can play for free, as 40% do, a sport requiring no physical contact, no uniforms, no special shoes or helmets, and  no sports injuries (except possibly carpal tunnel for the mouse clicks,), and played in your bedroom in your PJs or even naked up against other players from all over the entire world. You can play if you are a shut-in paraplegic. The playing field is level. All it takes is a fast computer and tremendous concentration and speed of thought.

Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, one such e-gamer reported that one year it cost him $1000 for hotel, meals, and travel to attend a tournament where he collected only $800 in prizes, but this year he expects to take in $200,000.  His father, at first dismayed that his twenty-year old son was spending so much time playing computer games, begged him to finish college. He may yet, but first he wants to buy a condo and move out of his childhood bedroom.

Declaring video games a sport has reached colleges. A Chicago college, Robert Morris, has offered scholarships up to $50,000 for champion video gamers. E-sports have reached beyond the bedrooms of boys playing video games with their pals.

.What about the commercial aspects?  The participants are mainly males under age 30, a hard audience to reach for advertising until companies realized that the channel that streams the games, Twitch Video, is so popular with that age group that advertising placed there costs much more than on regular video channels. That’s why Amazon has bought Twitch video for millions. .

This e-sport phenomenon is a remarkable development not only in e-commerce,  but in international relations, for  when you log on you may be teamed up with anyone from around he world. And you can do it from your own room at home. Talk about revenge of the nerds! 

Saturday on Tri-Met

Saturday  on Tri-Met 

Riding public transportation in Portland is great fun, for there are always surprises. Take Saturday, for instance. I was waiting for the #15 bus to take me up to 23rd and Lovejoy when I noticed behind me a derelict, old man in shabby clothes, a beard, and worn out shoes that did not match. His right shoe was coming apart and he shuffled along, stopped, and sat down on the sidewalk.

He was approached by a young man with a big back pack which he opened up and took out a new pair of sneakers which he gave to the homeless man along with a pair of new, white socks. Amazingly, the shoes fit and the old guy walked away, leaving the old shoes behind.

I asked the benefactor, “Do you do this often?”

He said only, “Önly occasionally” and was gone.

Two more passengers came up to wait for the #15, a young couple. She was carrying a picnic cooler and he was laden with three packs and a huge, rolled up foam mattress. They’d been camping near Bend. I did a lot of camping in my day and asked,  “Whatever happened to sleeping on the rocks?”

The bus arrived and they struggled to get aboard with all their stuff. He works in a hospital and soon engaged with the woman sitting beside me who exchanged experiences of that kind of work. She’s a care giver who prefers not to work in hospitals because of all the administrative conflicts. So we learn about other people’s lives.

I suspect that the two campers’ relationship would not be lasting as long as she carries only the cooler and he has not only his pack, but hers plus the huge mattress.

That was the ride to 23^rd and Lovejoy.

The ride back on the streetcar was equally remarkable. I broke my streetcar journey to stop at Safeway for a loaf of bread and when I crossed back to the streetcar stop to catch the next tram, I started talking with a dark-skinned man wearing something around his neck that looked like a greasy talisman or a charm. It was leather, the size and shape of a bull’s testicles, and I asked him what it was for. “Ït’s for religious purposes,” he explained, without further detail. I joked that maybe it was to ward of vampires. I soon learned that he was of Haitian descent, a practitioner of the religion practiced there, which recalled voodoo and zombies. He said there are two congregations of that religion in Portland but because he has been a practitioner for 34 years, he qualifies as a priest and can practice alone.

The next tram arrived. Seeing that I was struggling with a cane, a young woman gave me a senior seat and we were soon talking about destinations. Since I’m a Ride-Wise volunteer I always ask people who may be tourists where they’re headed.  The woman and friends were going to Powell’s and weren’t sure where to get off. The discussion turned to books and, always hoping to plug my own books, I said I was an author. I gave her one of my book marks.

Across from us, another passenger announced, Ï’m an author, too,” and told of his books translated into eight languages. His expose of Microsoft got him interrogated by the FBI and the Secret Service. He’d been asked, “What was he doing at the White House?” If was journalism, he said, and he added that he thought Hillary Clinton was much better looking than her photos.

Well;;, the word got back to Mrs. Clinton and he soon got a personal, hand written letter from Hillary Clinton saying, “Thank you for saying I look better than my photos. We have to keep a sense of humor,” etc. He’d had the letter laminated and proudly read it out for us.

I got off at Fifth and Market to wait for the #8 bus and ran into three other residents of Terwilliger Plaza. It was a short ride right to our door.

All that excitement, all those interesting people! I just love traveling with Tri-Met.